What will I learn in medical school? 

What you will learn in medical school can be divided into two parts:

Basic sciences. During your first two years of medical school, you’ll learn about the basic sciences essential to an understanding of normal structure and function in medicine: anatomy, biochemistry, behavioral science, physiology, and neuroscience. After you’ve covered the groundwork, the focus shifts to microbiology, immunology, pathology, and pharmacology for the study of abnormalities of structure and function, disease, and general therapeutic principles.

In addition to the core scientific work, you will be exposed to the topics of nutrition, medical ethics, genetics, laboratory medicine, health care delivery systems, substance abuse, human values, research, preventive medicine, community health, geriatrics, and human sexuality.

You’ll also work with actual patients and with people trained to simulate patients as you learn interviewing skills and how to obtain current and historical data from patients and conduct physical examinations.

Clinical training. During your third and fourth years, you’ll be involved in clinical rotations, or “clerkships,” which can last from four to 12 weeks per rotation. You’ll work with patients and their families in inpatient (hospital) and outpatient (doctor’s office) settings under the supervision of physician faculty members (“attending physicians”) and residents, as well as other members of the clinical team, including nurses, social workers, psychologists, pharmacists, and technical staff. 

You’ll collect relevant data and information from patients and present findings to faculty members for diagnosis and treatment planning. You’ll be expected to provide information to patients’ family members, answer their questions, and prepare them for the outcome of patients’ care.

This training will introduce you to the medical specialties, such as internal medicine, obstetrics/gynecology, pediatrics, psychiatry, and surgery. Depending on the school, rotations can also include family medicine, primary care, neurology, or a community or rural medicine internship.

For More Information:

• AAMC Member Medical Schools
  Information about the curriculum at the nation's 125 accredited medical schools can be found on the schools' Web sites.